Americans are incorrigible joiners, as witness the National Association
of Former FBI Agents, the Asparagus Club, the Auto Dismantlers
Association of Southern California and the Concatenated Order of
Hoo-Hoo (lumbermen). A dog named Socrates Lovinger is listed in the
Manhattan phone book. In colonial times, cussers were punished with a
red-hot poker thrust through the profane tongue. In 1900 a New York
judge committed an actress to Bellevue for smoking cigarettes. In 1905
the U.S. had more pianos and cottage organs than bathtubs....